Day Three: Wednesday September 5

STONEHENGE!
Today was a perfect day! Early morning McDonald's probably saved me from having a heart attack. I woke up early to get ready for my day trip to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge & Bath. On my way out of the building to get a bite to eat, the fire alarm went off at the hotel I was staying at! It was a malfunction, but the alarm sounds like a home security alarm magnified with a bullhorn. It is enough to scare the crap out of you, so I am sooooo glad I wasn't in bed when that sucker went off!

I was picked up by the tour company and our tour made it to Windsor Castle by 9:30am. Of the 3 destinations on the schedule today, this was the one I had the least interest in at the beginning, as I didn't know all that much about the place. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. The audio tour was excellent and the history of the place is rich and colorful. There were many rooms that when I walked into them, they took my breath away.

From Windsor Castle, we were off to Stonehenge. Well, what can I say....it is a group of stones. Now, don't get me wrong, I am ecstatic that I got to finally visit a place I have been dying to see for years, but........it is a group of rocks surrounded by a henge. Still, I know have a picture of me with Stonehenge in the background, and that is all that matters.

The final stop of the tour was the town of Bath. This is a good sized town that is home to old ancient hot water pools that were popular during the roman years & are still around today. The ruins themselves are underground, so I got to go down underneath the city and see the baths as they are today, which was pretty cool.

I met a bunch of great people on the tour, most importantly the Carters. They were a husband & wife duo who were fun people & when I asked where they were from, they said "The Shire." They are from New Zealand and live close to where they filmed "Lord of the Rings." After the tour was over, the 3 of us navigated the Underground (no longer on strike) and went for a few beers at a pub close to our respective hotels.

After drinks with the Carters, I decided to have 1 more beer at my hotel's bar. It was there that I met Jon and Trish. Jon was visiting on business from another area of England & Trish was from California (a little south of Oakland). I ended up talking with these two until 1am. In all, it was a pretty fun day & I am not even sure what I am going to check out tomorrow!